[robotics-worldwide] Postdoctoral position in audio and/or video perception for Human-Robot social interaction

[Jean-Marc Odobez]

The IDIAP Research Institute (www.idiap.ch), a laboratory associated
with EPFL (Swiss Federal  Institute  of Technology, Lausanne) seeks
qualified candidates for

1 Postdoctoral position in audio and/or video perception for Human-Robot 
social interaction

The research will be conducted in the context of the HUMAVIPS project,
a 3-year project funded by the European Community. The overall goal of
the project is to endow a humanoid robot (NAO, from Aldebaran) with
audio-visual sensing and interaction capabilities allowing him to navigate
in a complex environment, localize a group of people, join it and 
interact with it.

The research done at Idiap focuses on the later parts, namely:
- the design of perceptual algorithms to recognize human non-verbal 
behaviors
   (when people speak, whom they look at) from audio-visual sensors;
- the investigation of new approaches to model and identify people 
interactions
   and relationships (e.g. who speaks to whom, who is the most important 
person of the group);
- exploit the recognized conversational patterns and relationship
   in a robot-to-group of people multimodal interface design allowing 
the robot
   to find the appropriate time ways to initiate and take part to a 
conversation.

The postdoctoral researcher will address one of the above theme.
She/he should have a strong background in statistics, applied mathematics,
and computer vision. Experience (both from the modeling and hands on 
perspectives)
in one or several of the following areas is required:
- human-human communication modeling;
- robot interaction modeling;
- human-robot or human-computer multimodal interface design.
The applicant should be familiar with C/C++ programming and the Linux 
environment.

Contract:
Starting date: as soon as possible.
The initial appointment is for one year.

The salary ranges from CHF 70 000  to 75 000/year according to training
and previous experience.

Application:
--------------
For further details and application please contact:

Jean-Marc Odobez (odobez at idiap.ch, tel : +41 (0)27 721 77 26)

About IDIAP:
------------
Idiap is an independent, non-profit research institute recognized and
supported by the Swiss Government, and affiliated with the Ecole
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
It is located in the town of Martigny in Valais, a scenic region in the
south of Switzerland, surrounded by the highest mountains of Europe,
and offering exciting recreational activities, including hiking,
climbing and skiing, as well as varied cultural activities.
It is within close proximity to Geneva and Lausanne.
Although Idiap is located in the French part of Switzerland, English is
the working language. Free French lessons are provided.

Idiap offers competitive salaries and conditions at all levels in a young,
dynamic, and multicultural environment. Idiap is an equal opportunity
employer and is actively involved in the "Advancement of Women in 
Science" European
initiative. The Institute seeks to maintain a principle of open competition
(on the basis of merit) to appoint the best candidate, provides equal
opportunity for all candidates, and equally encourage both genders to 
apply.

-- 
Jean-Marc Odobez,
IDIAP Senior Researcher,
EPFL Maitre d'Enseignement et de Recherche (MER)
IDIAP Research Institute (http://www.idiap.ch)
Tel: +41 (0)27 721 77 26
Web: http://www.idiap.ch/~odobez